Helena Gao details new EP, Gao Dan Dan

The EP arrives just a month after Gao's involvement in Zara Larsson's Midnight Sun: Girls Trip deluxe album, on which she co-produced (alongside Margo XS and MNEK) nine tracks — which led her to receive a GRAMMY nomination for Best Dance Pop Recording. Dance-pop track “niu bi [牛逼]” arrives after previous single "lao shi", which saw Gao shoot to virality when it became a dance trend on Douyin, China's version of TikTok.

Gao Dan Dan was entirely self-produced by Gao, and is inspired by her time now spent between London and Shanghai, as well as her Scandinavian upbringing. “This project comes from reconnecting with a part of myself that’s always been there, but that I hadn’t fully explored," she explains of the collection of songs.

"For a long time, my Chinese identity felt distant or undefined. But the more I lean into it, the more I realize it can mean anything. Using the language in my music is my way of opening that door, even if it feels like it has a hundred locks. Sonically, that exploration moves between worlds - pulling from Shanghai’s underground nightlife and the Scandinavian altpop scene I come from. It lives in those in-between spaces around the club: the transit, the anticipation, the comedown - where everything feels a little more fluid, and identity becomes something you can reshape in real time.”